During my university days, the
music loving crowd was divided mainly in three distinct camps - Mohammad Rafi, Kishore
Kumar and Mukesh. Their passion was so intense that they despised the icons of
the other camps. Verbal duals were a daily affair often leading to the verge of
a spiteful fracas. Mercifully, good sense prevailed at the end and no
unpleasant situations arose. Personally, I found this rivalry illogical and trivial.
They were all great artistes and probably had an excellent rapport with each
other. However, my neutrality was ridiculed and soon I became the target of all
the three camps. In order to shield myself, I decided to open a fourth front. I
declared one fine Sunday at the lunch table that my favourite was Manna Dey. To
my utter surprise, I found nods of approval even from the hardliners of the
camps and my musical taste was highly appreciated. Manna Dey had no rival.
Incidentally, Rafi, Kishore and
Mukesh were patronized by the three leading heroes of the time; - Dilip Kumar,
Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor respectively.
Their voices were supposedly compatible with those of the singers. Manna
Dey, a name mentioned often along with the big three had a unique voice that
did not quite match the voices of the romantic heroes. In spite of this, he had
recorded over three thousand songs for Hindi movies. There was a story that
once in the absence of Mukesh he was asked to record a song temporarily to
facilitate the shooting of an important scene with Raj Kapoor. It was agreed
that his voice will later be replaced with that of Mukesh. But Manna Dey’s
rendition was so good that Mukesh declined to oblige. Raj Kapoor, who had a
great ear for music, agreed.
During an interview on his 90th
birthday, Manna Dey was asked to identify the best singer of his time. Without
any hesitation, he named Mohammad Rafi and added that there would never be
another like him. Interestingly, many years earlier, Mohammad Rafi was asked
whether he listened to any songs of his contemporaries and Rafi saab, with a
shy smile that characterized his personality, named Manna Dey. Manna Dey
treasured this statement more than the awards, which according to him were
“inconsequential forms of recognition”. In fact, when he received his first
ever Filmfare Award for the song “Ye bhai zara dekhe chalo …” from Mera Naam
Joker, he expressed his frustration for being ignored for some of his earlier
and more deserving numbers like “Puchho na kaise maine rayen bitai” or “Kaun
aya mere manke dwar” or “Kasme wade payar wafa”.
Manna Dey had a strong classical
background. He was the undisputed choice of any music director whenever a raga
based song was conceived.
His love for his wife has been a
fairy tale. He married Sulochona Kumaran
from Kerala in the fifties. He revealed during one of his recent interviews that
he always phoned his wife before stepping on the stage for a live performance.
I actually watched them on TV holding hands as he was responding to questions
during an interview. The man was shattered when Sulochana died of cancer in
January 2012.
Today, 24th October
2013, he has been united once again with his loving wife. God bless them both.
Kolkata – 24 October 2014
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